Not enough $$ or an unwillingness to make up for short cash with other perks (food, drink, lodging, whores....)

"it went as crappy as I knew it likely would be"
Sounds like self-fulfilling prophecy to me.... at the very very very least every GIG can be a paid rehearsal.....

Actually there's one even better... a few years ago at a pub-in-a-can downtown, a chum of mine was playing a regular Tuesday night gig when a bunch of FKN-soccer-ball-licking-a$$holes came in, and when he wouldn't only play the bigoted and misogynist music they wanted to hear, they booed him off the stage....

I was sat at the bar when one of these FK-holes came over.... he stood beside me and said "We sure showed him..."

I lit a smoke, inhaled deeply and exhaled these words right into this ignorant mthrfkrs face....

"Oh ya.... he just got paid a whole nights cash for 4 songs, and now is free to go elsewhere and not endure you, while you pay the bar back his wage.... You really showed him eh...."

I then got up, helped my chum out with his gear, and we went to a lovely pub where we spent the night pounding pints, tossing darts and laughing at moron-soccer-fans.....

Every gig has a silver lining, if you're willing to find it